Cougars wrecked by Memphis

“I’m embarrassed and so disappointed that our guys did not compete better,” coach James Dickey said.

The Cougars got smacked 89-55 by Memphis on Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion. The 34-point defeat was Houston’s worst loss since Dec. 24, 2004, when the Cougars were rolled 110-63 at Washington. It made for a happy homecoming for Kingwood native Josh Pastner, who has guided the Tigers to a 12-5 record and a 3-0 start in Conference USA.

Meanwhile, UH (9-8, 1-3) dropped its third straight C-USA game and saw its six-game home winning streak snapped.

The Cougars had three assists for the night and zero in the second half.

UH was outrebounded 41-31 overall and 23-10 in the second half. The Cougars actually were winning the battle on the glass at the half but Memphis took over in the final 20 minutes.

Houston went for a stretch of 7:38 in the second half without a point (14:54-7:16). Memphis scored 18 points in that span to turn an eight-point lead into a 26-point advantage.

It was as bad as the Cougars have looked all season. Even on nights when they have struggled, they have often clawed back to stay within striking distance. On Saturday, when Memphis punched, Houston didn’t punch back.

“They came ready to play and we didn’t,” Thomas said. “We had little spurts but then when adversity hit, we all just sat down and they just kept on coming.”

Dickey expressed his unhappiness with the Cougars’ showing

“To play like that at home, that’s so disappointing,” Dickey said. “As I told our guys, we have such a storied program and they should feel very badly about this. And I don’t want to take anything away from Memphis; they played very well. But they got comfortable and we didn’t offer much resistance.”

Senior guard Darian Thibodeaux and junior guard Jonathon Simmons both began Saturday’s game on the bench for being late to a team meeting, coach James Dickey said. It ultimately didn’t make a significant difference but could be a contributing factor as to why the Cougars offense looked out of of sync in the early stages.

Houston played tentative and lacked aggressiveness in the early going when the Cougars could have built a quick lead while Memphis endured its own struggles on the offensive end. Instead, Memphis was the first to strike and Houston never led in the game. The Cougars tied the score at 2-2 after the first basket and would never get closer than two points after that.

After Memphis stretched its lead in the first half to as much as 18 points, Houston cut the deficit to 11 at the half and as little as eight in the second, but that’s when UH’s scoring drought began and Memphis took advantage.

The Cougars have struggled mightily in the second half in each of their last three losses to UTEP, Central Florida and Memphis.

“The last three games in the second half we’ve not been very good at all,” Dickey said. “Whether it be rebounding or offensively. We’ve got to get better offensively in the second half.”

Now the question is for the Cougars: Is this the beginning of a downward spiral, a stinker that you just throw away and forget about or a wake-up call that the Cougars will heed to begin a turnaround?

The way the Cougars come out on Wednesday night at SMU should go a long way in answering that question.

“There’s still a lot of basketball to be played,” Dickey said. “We’ve got to regroup…we’ve got work to do before we get to Dallas on Tuesday night.”

Gee, I’m glad we didn’t try to hire Billy Gillespie or Ronnie Arrow. Or Nolan Richardson for that matter. Dickie is proving to be quite the coach. I mean the way he gets this team amped up for games is amazing in a Ray Mcallum sort of way.

Definitely shouldn’t lose by this much, but some fans need to regroup their expectations of a team full of players that weren’t here last year. Also the injuries have hurt the depth this year. Next year will be a different story with a year of experience, hopefully a healthy team, and two of the best players in the country coming in. Dickey is a great coach and he and his staff are recruiting like no one has around UH in a long time, give it time and the rewards of that will be realized in the coming years.

So, ……why didn’t they compete? Memphis doesn’t have the talent edge it did under Calipari. This team quit. The players and coaches can offer all the spin after the game they want, but this team packed it in. Why? Coach Dickey is upset they didn’t compete? Gee,that’s satisfying. The specter of Ray McAllum walks the halls.Do these players even enjoy taking the court? It doesn’t seem so. To quit is inexcusable.

Let’s not overreact to a brutal loss. The kids are clearly embarrassed by this loss. It is more important to me to see how they respond on Tuesday. Dickey is a very, very good coach and he is half way through his second season. The players he has brought in can all play. It really bothers me as a Coog Fan and an Alumn how fickle some of the UH fans are. Blaming Mack Rhoades after one loss for the basketball team?!?! It’s not time to burn the whole thing down. It was painful to watch, but I firmly believe that things are heading in the right direction. Go Coogs!

Sounds like a combintation of JD’s work, and then us being outsized and outquicked. The outsized and outquicked, thats more of a recruiting thing, and JD has apprently done a better job than TP in this, so just based on that, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But you really have to have doubts about JD’s motivating and coaching abilities after this one. I know what we got now are TP left overs, but I doubt that TP was out fishing during recruiting season, he was probably doing the best he could with what he had- a very middle of the pack CUSA school with an ancient history. JD has a future Big East member in Texas, which I think is a pretty good selling point, hence the rivals recruiting class ranking. But what was got right now in size and talent is obviously pedestrian.

Actually there is only 1 player left from CTP era…Kirk Van Slyke. These are JD guys. If he can’t win in CUSA, I hate to see what will happen in the new conference. His teams certainly haven’t overachieved since he’s been there.